The nation’s largest superannuation funds are investing nearly $5.4 billion of local retirement savings in overseas assets every three months, which could depress the value of the Australian dollar over time as their ever-growing pool of retirement savings forces them to look offshore.

That is according to Deutsche Bank analyst Lachlan Dynan, who said funds’ exposure to international assets had jumped from about a third of their assets under management a decade ago to almost 50 per cent by December.